Group Insurance Commission: reduced new-hire waiting period takes effect July 1, 2024, officials say

Erica Chabelli, deputy executive director of the Group Insurance Commission, told a coordinator-training session that a legislature-mandated reduction in the waiting period for state employee benefits will take effect on July 1, 2024.

Chabelli said the change means ‘‘if you start on July 1, your benefits will be effective that day’’ and that hires who begin any other day will have benefits effective on the first day of the following month. She and GIC staff said the intent is to ‘‘eliminate potential gaps in coverage for many of our new hires’’ by shortening the average waiting period from roughly 73 days to about 15 days under the new rule.

The shift is tied to actions the legislature included in the budget, Chabelli said, and GIC is proceeding with regulation promulgation and an administrative bulletin to provide final guidance before the July 1 effective date. She emphasized a hard cutoff: anyone hired before July 1 will remain subject to the prior 60-day minimum waiting period and ‘‘there will be no exceptions granted for that.’’

Coordinators were given three operational responsibilities to…